Brand Experience and Activation > Product/Service
CRUISIN TO WIN 3
TARGET MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS, St John'S / IRVING OIL / 2006
Awards:
Overview
Credits
Overview
ClientBriefOrObjective
Sales promotions are part of the retail industry landscape. Irving’s Cruisin’ to Win Summer promotion was no different from other competitive retail promotions. It featured multiple ways to win, and contest prizes included everything from cars to chocolate bars. The objectives of the promotion were: 1) To make the promotion stand out from the hundreds of undifferentiated ‘big ticket’ promotions in the marketplace, 2) To increase year-over-year convenience store sales during the campaign and attract new customers to the store, and 3) To build a favourable image of Irving convenience stores and contribute to positive brand equity.
Execution
Instead of promoting the big prizes, Cruisin’ to Win focused on the small ones. In the first two years of the campaign, it was to jolt people out of their inertia by using ‘reality radio’ to talk up the small prizes. In the third year of the campaign (2005), the strategy was to call people who almost made it big by winning a contest but didn’t quite get there. Instead, the idea was to encourage the person to play ‘Cruisin to Win’ for a chance to ‘win big’.
Outcome
Cruisin’ to Win – now in its third year - racked up 9% year-over-year increases in same - store sales across New England in 2005. The campaign overachieved its business objectives, resulting in a cumulative growth of 22.6% over three years. Irving saw a flow of new customers in key opportunity/non-user segments, and generated a lift in top-of-mind awareness, brand liking and personality. Ad tracking clearly demonstrated that the advertising resonated with consumers, with high levels of awareness well above industry norms (69% in New England and 84% in Eastern Canada).
Relevancy
The advertising strategy was to differentiate Cruisin’ to Win from other Summer promotions and to avoid the cheesy and shrill advertising so typical of sales promotions – the bombastic voice of carpet remnant stores; instead, we used this genre to create parody – and disruption. We used outdoor (where real products were attached to billboards), and ‘reality radio’: real people with near wins in unusual contests. The radio ads featured ‘live’ calls from Kathy Greenwood, one of Canada’s top female improvisers. Kathy’s enthusiasm and tongue-in-cheek humour made for some very entertaining radio.
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